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Voltaire: A Biography of the Man and His Century (Orieux)
5/5. [Adapted from a salon comment.] This may be my favorite biography I've ever read (to be fair, that's not a super long list... but still). It dates from 1966 (English translation 1979) but is still a classic and I can see why. It was SO GOOD and near the end I could feel myself drawing it out a little so I wouldn't have to finish reading it and not have any more left. Orieux really gets that what I want out of history is well-thought-out-and-well-analyzed-and-well-sourced gossipy sensationalism delivered in anecdotal bite-sized chunks, but still with overriding themes. And boy was Voltaire's life basically tailor-made to deliver that -- but Orieux also leaned into it for all it was worth. And he has got this dry sense of humor that is evident on every page and just hilarious.
I really loved how Orieux makes Voltaire come alive as someone who had so SO many faults (SO MANY, lol, Voltaire was a champ at both holding grudges and not letting things go, and there were just innumerable places where Orieux was all "...and here's yet another example where ANY ACTUAL GROWNUP would have LET IT GO, but did Voltaire? I will give you one guess.") but also at the same time so many amazing virtues, many of which were in some sense part and parcel with his flaws: the Voltaire who Could Not Let Things Go is the same Voltaire of the Calas affair.
I highly encourage you to read selenak's description of L'affaire Calas (scroll to near the end) -- and really her whole very excellent review of Orieux, which goes into much more detail that this one and which convinced me to read it -- but briefly, the Calas family was wrongfully accused and convicted of killing their own son/brother, and Jean Calas (the father) was tortured to death. Voltaire decided to investigate, found evidence that the Calas family was innocent, and Would Not Let It Go until the verdict was overturned-- and Orieux points out that this was a huge deal because before this judges had been the last word, and there was no recourse if there was a wrong verdict.
It did kind of make me wish that we got more biographies these days that were written as literature (the writing is excellent, and also kudos to the translator for keeping the excellence of the writing and that dry wit) and where the biographers weren't afraid to have overt opinions. Orieux has Decided Opinions about everything and is not shy about owning it (and usually has evidence, though selenak did find a couple of sloppy bits in her review, but I'm finding that's waaaay better than most biographies), and it is GREAT.
I must also say that it is a pretty long book (even though the English version is abridged -- the French/German version is 1000 pages! The English version is only ~500) and though I was riveted almost the entire time, there were bits where Orieux goes on about various visitors Voltaire had (especially in his later years) where I was, okay, kinda bored :) But generally speaking I adored this book.
I really loved how Orieux makes Voltaire come alive as someone who had so SO many faults (SO MANY, lol, Voltaire was a champ at both holding grudges and not letting things go, and there were just innumerable places where Orieux was all "...and here's yet another example where ANY ACTUAL GROWNUP would have LET IT GO, but did Voltaire? I will give you one guess.") but also at the same time so many amazing virtues, many of which were in some sense part and parcel with his flaws: the Voltaire who Could Not Let Things Go is the same Voltaire of the Calas affair.
I highly encourage you to read selenak's description of L'affaire Calas (scroll to near the end) -- and really her whole very excellent review of Orieux, which goes into much more detail that this one and which convinced me to read it -- but briefly, the Calas family was wrongfully accused and convicted of killing their own son/brother, and Jean Calas (the father) was tortured to death. Voltaire decided to investigate, found evidence that the Calas family was innocent, and Would Not Let It Go until the verdict was overturned-- and Orieux points out that this was a huge deal because before this judges had been the last word, and there was no recourse if there was a wrong verdict.
It did kind of make me wish that we got more biographies these days that were written as literature (the writing is excellent, and also kudos to the translator for keeping the excellence of the writing and that dry wit) and where the biographers weren't afraid to have overt opinions. Orieux has Decided Opinions about everything and is not shy about owning it (and usually has evidence, though selenak did find a couple of sloppy bits in her review, but I'm finding that's waaaay better than most biographies), and it is GREAT.
I must also say that it is a pretty long book (even though the English version is abridged -- the French/German version is 1000 pages! The English version is only ~500) and though I was riveted almost the entire time, there were bits where Orieux goes on about various visitors Voltaire had (especially in his later years) where I was, okay, kinda bored :) But generally speaking I adored this book.
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Hee, this made me laugh! : )
By the way, I have a historical question which your group of Frederician fans might be able to help with? I've tried some searching, but not found anything yet. What was the status of widows in Ancien Regime France? My story is set in the 1750's, and my character is the wife of a merchant. When the husband dies, they have a son not yet of age (he might be 12 or so). Would she, as a widow, be able to act as temporary head of the family while her son grows up (obviously with the help of her husband's agent to manage the business etc)? Or would some male relative have to step in?
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Mind you: since female Regents were not just possible in France but had happened in three cases within the last 200 years at that point - Catherine de' Medici for several of her sons, Marie de' Medici for Louis XIII, Anne of Austria for Louis XIV - obviously at least at the highest level, a widow as temporary head of a family and country was possible. But maybe royals were the exception from the rule...
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Further Ancien Régime refs for this period re a widow's legal capacity to hold her late spouse's property and run his business: (from this article on the interesting succession case of Baudon (re: succession to matrimonial assets):
Melish, Jacob, “The Power of Wives: Managing Money and Men in the Family Businesses of Old Regime Paris,” in Women and Work in Eighteenth-Century France, ed. Hafter, Daryl M. and Kushner, Nina (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2007); see also Jane McLeod, “Printer Widows and the State in Eighteenth-Century France,” in Women and Work, 113–29.
(Sidebar: on the latter ref, it seems widows were particularly active in the French printing business! See wiki and refs.)
Further material on succession and property in aristo marriage contracts and regional customary laws: this very Paris-centric article circa 1500s to early 1700s.
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My character is in Bordeaux, but I guess I am open to fudging the laws of that particular place, since I probably can't get hold of them in the first place... Her husband is a merchant shipping wine to Scotland (or I guess smuggling, from the perspective of the British state), who married her for her family connections there, since her parents were Scottish Jacobite refugees from 1715.
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I'm glad you got help on your historical question! Oh, I should also ask